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Boeing overhaul aims to boost engineering

Still recovering from embarrassing setbacks with recent aircraft programs, Boeing Wednesday announced it has created several new senior-level leadership positions “to help drive engineering excellence and ensure program success across the company.”

Specifically, Boeing appointed nine vice presidents of engineering — four in Commercial Airplanes and five Integrated Defense Systems.

“Boeing’s reputation for engineering excellence is built on an array of outstanding products designed and developed under the guidance of strong engineering leaders,” John Tracy, Boeing chief technology officer and senior vice president of Engineering, Operations & Technology, said in a news release. “Our new senior engineering leaders will help ensure that engineering excellence continues to be driven through all our products and services to satisfy our customers and grow our company.”

The vice presidents of engineering “will work closely with program managers and chief engineers to help ensure the technical integrity of their products by providing technical guidance in their various areas of expertise,” Boeing said. “This guidance will be provided in a number of ways, including direct and active involvement in key system requirements and criteria definition, critical design and production readiness reviews, technical risk assessments and issues resolution, and any other important engineering challenges that may arise.”

The vice presidents will report to Tracy and to either the Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of Engineering or the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems vice president of Engineering and Mission Assurance.

Engineering issues have contributed to delays in Boeing’s key 787Dreamliner program, among others. Most recently, the company announced in June that it would delay the 787’s first flight from that month to the end of the year to reinforce an area where the wing meets the fuselage.

Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace union have criticized Boeing for losing its traditional focus on engineering.

“We’re hopeful that this is a sign that the company is returning engineering and technical work to the importance that it needs and rightfully should have in a company that manufactures the world’s best aircraft,” SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich said Wednesday. “We’ve been hopeful that Boeing would elevate engineering, and perhaps this is a sign of it, but we do have to wait and see.”

Dugovich noted that just one of the four new engineering vice presidents in Boeing Commercial Airplanes has been a SPEEA member (he said he hasn’t looked into the backgrounds of the Integrated Defense Systems vice presidents).

Having a union background is helpful, Dugovich said, noting that Alan Mulally — the former Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief who now is the much-ballyhooed is president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company — was a SPEEA member early in his career.

People who have been union members “have enjoyed the benefits of a union contract and knowing what that means to the work force,” he said.

Here are the new vice presidents of engineering at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and their responsibilities and backgrounds:

As part of their new assignments, Delaney, Ogonowski and Sinnett will continue to focus on the 787, “which is currently the most important engineering challenge for Boeing Commercial Airplanes,” Boeing said.

Here are the new vice presidents of engineering at Integrated Defense Systems:

Boeing’s Enterprise Engineering function already “has made significant progress toward improving the efficiency and effectiveness of engineering support across Boeing programs,” the company said.

By being able to share more processes, systems and data, Boeing engineers in the different business units are now able to work more effectively together on joint programs — such as the P-8A and 767 International Tanker programs — which leverage Boeing’s unique ability to combine its commercial and defense capabilities.

Just as important, Boeing engineers can now cross business unit lines to support any Boeing program. For example, more than 1,000 Integrated Defense Systems’ engineers have helped support Commercial Airplanes’ 787 and 777 programs over the past two years, while Commercial Airplanes’ engineers have helped Integrated Defense Systems resolve technical and flight test issues on the 767 International Tanker program.

Now, by focusing the technical expertise of proven engineering leaders on the top engineering challenges of the company, Boeing is strengthening its ability to ensure that engineering quality, effectiveness and efficiency are being driven into the design, development and production of all the company’s products and services, Tracy said.

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